Friday, January 21, 2011

"If it wasn't already obvious, Apple's iPad has led the way to explosive growth in the so-called "media tablet" business. The device almost exclusively led the way to a strong 2010 third quarter that grew by 45 percent compared to the second quarter, IDC said Tuesday with the release of its first report on the new tablet computer market."

Some pretty astounding statistics and predictions here from IDC: tablet sales grew by 45 percent in Q3 2010, over the previous quarter. Pretty amazing. A whopping 87.4 percent of the tablets shipped in the aforementioned quarter were iPads. They estimate that about 17 million (media-focused) tablets shipped in 2010, and that 44.6 million will ship in 2011, with 70.8 million shipping in 2012. Much of this predicted growth will result from Android (and other OS) tablets arriving on the scene. IDC defines media tablets as ranging from 5-inches to 14-inches in size and running a lightweight OS, like iOS or Android.

In a sidenote, IDC also estimates that 10.8 million (standalone) e-readers shipped in 2010, with 14.7 million predicted for 2011, and 16.6 million predicted to ship in 2012. In the e-reader category, the Amazon Kindle leads the pack with about a 41.5 percent market share globally.

Lots of people running around with lots of tiny devices. I'm noticing more and more iPads in my frequent travels, but, as of yet, haven't really seen any Android (or other) tablets, and I have been looking.

Friday, October 29, 2010

"Apple has for the first time outpaced Blackberry-maker Research in Motion in global smartphone sales thanks to the success of its iPhone 4, a report said Friday.Industry tracker IDC said Apple sold 14.1 million iPhone units in the third quarter while Canada's Research in Motion shipped 12.4 million Blackberry devices."

Interesting statistic. I am seeing more and more iPhones wherever I travel. However, it seems to me that the BlackBerry still rules in the corporate world. Just get on an airplane and count the numbers of (business-looking) people using BlackBerries, and then count the comparable number of iPhone users. No contest, in this admittedly unscientific poll. But, to put it all into perspective, of 340.5 million phones sold in this time period, Nokia sold 110.4 million, Samsung sold 71.4 million, with LG coming in a distant third at 28.4 million. Apple is fourth. I'm struggling to remember when I last saw an ad for a Nokia phone, but obviously however they're marketing their products is still working. Anyone out there own a Nokia phone?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

"Quarterly PC shipment estimates were released Wednesday, and Apple's share of the U.S. PC market grew 34 percent year over year to capture 8 percent of the total domestic market."

So says Gartner, however IDC says the growth was actually 8.3% and only shipped 1.130 million versus Gartners estimate of 1.39 million units. IDC also differs on the Market Share, estimating Apple's market share at 6.4% versus the 8% that Gartner gave them. I would have thought they would base their estimates on similar calculations, aren't they querying the same vendors? I have to admit my ignorance for how these numbers are calculated, any thoughts?